1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an optical path change optical connector, and an optical path change optical connector.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-210431 filed on Sep. 11, 2009, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical path change optical connector for inputting and outputting an optical signal between an optical fiber and an optical element on a circuit board is shown in FIG. 13 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2009-103998). In this optical path change optical connector 6, an optical fiber 2 is introduced into a resin-molded optical connector body 1 in parallel with a circuit board 4 having an optical element 3 mounted thereon, and a 45° inclined reflective surface 5 is formed at the front of a front end of the optical fiber 2 in the optical connector 6.
Light output from an optical fiber (bare fiber) 2a is changed 90° in its direction by the reflective surface 5 and is incident to the optical element 3.
The reflective surface 5 is formed on a forward inclined wall surface of a recess 7 formed at a front end of the optical fiber 2a in the optical connector body 1. A reference numeral 2A indicates an optical fiber ribbon, 2 indicates an optical fiber strand constituting the optical fiber ribbon 2A, and 2a indicates an optical fiber (bare fiber) obtained by removing a cladding of the optical fiber strand. The optical fibers 2 and 2a are fixed by a transparent adhesive, which is filled through an adhesive filling window 8. The recess 7 is filled with the transparent adhesive and sealed with transparent glass 9. An anti-reflective (AR) coating (AR film) is generally formed on a surface of the transparent glass 9 in order to prevent light loss due to light output from the optical element 3 being reflected from the surface of the transparent glass 9. The optical connector body 1 has a fitting pin 10 fitted into a positioning hole 4a formed in the circuit board 4.
Thus, the optical connector 6 described in Japanese Patent Publication, First Publication No. 2009-103998 requires the task for filling the recess 7 with the transparent adhesive and sealing the recess 7 with the transparent glass 9. This makes the assembly task cumbersome. Further, the number of parts increases due to the use of the transparent glass 9 for sealing. Accordingly, the optical connector becomes expensive.
The present invention has been achieved in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical path change optical connector capable of overcoming complexity of the assembly and being manufactured at a low cost.